Food content creator Bradley Go, better known as Bradleytries, has spent months and countless social media posts convincing Filipinos to give chicken inasal the love and appreciation it deserves.
This August, he takes things further and goes beyond online by giving diners even more choices—this time as unique takes on the popular Bacolod dish.
Why Bradleytries Trusted Vara Dining With His Favorite Flavors
For the entire month of August, Bradley is teaming up with chef Jed Lim of Vara Dining on a limited-time collaboration that reimagines two of Bacolod’s best-known flavors: an Inasal Yakitori, an Inasal Patty, and a Batchoy Tsukemen. The menu will be available both à la carte and as a set.
Despite lending his name to the collaboration, Bradley insists that he stays out of the kitchen. “I don’t know anything kitchen-wise,” he laughs. “I let them do the conceptualization and recipes.”
The partnership came naturally. Go and Lim have been friends since high school and to date, still play golf together. Bradley had also featured Vara Dining not long after it opened, and his social media post performed well. Months later, the restaurant reached out with a simple proposition: create something inspired by the inasal that Bradley has become known for promoting online.
For Lim, the collaboration is an opportunity to steer Vara’s partnerships in a different direction. “We’ve done wine events before, but I want to collaborate with people and restaurants we genuinely want to work with,” he says. “Brad was one of the first people we thought of.”
The Taste Tests Behind Bradleytries’ First Restaurant Collaboration
Ironically, Lim admits he only began seriously exploring Bacolod’s famous chicken inasal after binge-watching Bradley’s videos. Before any recipes were developed, Bradley brought him to some of his personal favorites—including Mezmar’s and Oks Manok—to familiarize himself with the flavors as well as establish a benchmark.
“I wanted him to understand what I liked in an inasal,” Bradley says. “He delivered. It’s juicy and it’s balanced.”
The duo spent nearly four months refining the menu—tasting, tweaking, and being brutally honest with one another. In fact, some of the initial ideas didn’t survive.
“There was originally a shrimp cake,” Bradley recalls. “I just didn’t think it fit. I wanted something closer to the actual Bacolod experience, so I suggested batchoy instead.”
The same went for the rice. “I told them plain rice wasn’t enough. We should do garlic rice—and theirs turned out really good.”
Consequently, that openness to opinion became the collaboration’s biggest strength.
How Trust and Friendship Shaped Vara Dining’s New Menu
“It was so easy working with Brad,” Lim says. “We just message each other on Facebook. Everything was straightforward. If something didn’t work, we said it.”
Among the dishes, the Inasal Yakitori borrows Japanese technique while staying faithful to the smoky, tangy profile of Bacolod inasal. It’s topped with fried rice paper and atchara, and served with the usual condiments.
The Inasal Patty adapts a grilling method Lim previously developed for an Iberico pork dish at Vara, while the Batchoy Tsukemen, meanwhile, grew from Go’s admiration for Vara’s duck tsukemen.
It’s the content creators first-ever restaurant collaboration—a milestone he admits he never saw coming.
“I’m still getting over the fact that vlogging led to opportunities like this,” he says. “As long as I trust the people I’m collaborating with and I know the food is genuinely good, I’m happy. What I appreciate most was that Vara still let me be Bradleytries. It wasn’t about forcing my name onto Vara—it was about creating something we’d both be proud of.”
Vara Dining is located at the 3rd Floor, Karrivin Plaza Building, 2316 Chino Roces Avenue Extension, Makati.
Frequently Asked Questions
Bradleytries is Filipino food content creator Bradley Go, known for his restaurant reviews and passion for promoting Filipino food—especially chicken inasal.
It’s a limited-time August menu created by Bradley Go and chef Jed Lim featuring dishes inspired by Bacolod cuisine.
The collaboration features Inasal Yakitori, Inasal Patty, and Batchoy Tsukemen, available à la carte or as a set.
Vara Dining is located on the 3rd Floor, Karrivin Plaza Building, Chino Roces Avenue Extension, Makati City.
The special collaboration menu is available throughout the month of August.
Chef Jed Lim is the chef behind Vara Dining and Bradley Go’s collaborator for the limited-time Bacolod-inspired menu.
